Intensive care medicine
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To assess the accuracy of procalcitonin as a measure of severity in patients with septic abdominal illnesses and the sepsis syndrome, to compare measurements with those of other inflammatory mediators, and to predict outcome. ⋯ Procalcitonin is a new indicator of infection and sepsis. TNF and IL-6 concentrations always rise after major operations and fall in the absence of infection, indicating operative trauma. Procalcitonin is sensitive in detecting infective complications. Under routine conditions the procalcitonin concentrations seems to be valid, reproducible and detectable.
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Intensive care medicine · Mar 2000
Procalcitonin in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass in open heart surgery-first results of the Procalcitonin in Heart Surgery study (ProHearts).
To investigate procalcitonin (PCT) levels in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in order to assess the prevalence and prognostic capacity of elevated PCT levels following CPB in open heart surgery. ⋯ These results provide evidence that PCT might serve as an early prognostic marker in patients undergoing CPB in open heart surgery. It may be worth considering immunomodulating approaches in patients presenting elevated PCT levels in the early phase after CPB.
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Intensive care medicine · Mar 2000
Procalcitonin for differential diagnosis of graft rejection and infection in patients with heart and/or lung grafts.
Investigation of the reliability of Procalcitonin (PCT) for differential diagnosis of acute rejections and non-viral infections in heart and lung transplanted patients. ⋯ PCT is a reliable predictor with discriminating power for non-viral systemic infections in patients after heart and/or lung transplantation. PCT allows an early differential diagnosis between rejection (AR) and bacterial/fungal infection (IF) and thus a rapid and focused therapeutic intervention. It avoids unnecessary antibiotic treatment which could be toxic for the graft itself in patients with rejection only. PCT provides vital information early to clinicians and allows them to improve the management of bacterial/fungal infections in immunocompromized transplant patients. PCT thus facilitates and improves the outcome of survival rate and the quality of life in the postoperative period of patients with heart and/or lung grafts.
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Intensive care medicine · Mar 2000
Procalcitonin (PCT) is useful in predicting the bacterial origin of an acute circulatory failure in critically ill patients.
To evaluate the accuracy of procalcitonin (PCT) in predicting bacterial infection in ICU medical and surgical patients. ⋯ The increase of PCT is related to the appearance and severity of bacterial infection in ICU patients. Thus, PCT might be an interesting parameter for the diagnosis of bacterial infections in ICU patients.